Event held to tackle substance abuse, mental health
The Life Esidimeni Randfontein Centre held its own Mental Health and Substance Abuse Awareness Day recently.
During the month of October, the focus was on mental health, so the Life Esidimeni Randfontein Centre held their own Mental Health and Substance Abuse Awareness Day on Tuesday, 30 October.
According to Johan Lombaard, the Life Recovery Centre manager, they combined mental health awareness with substance abuse awareness because the two illnesses go hand in hand.
On World Mental Health Day, which was on 10 October, all the focus was on the mental well-being of loved ones. World Mental Health Day was first celebrated in 1992 as an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organisation, but today substance abuse is as big a problem as mental health issues.
Many times people with mental health problems will start to abuse drugs. We believe that both illnesses should be treated together,” he said.
Life Esidimeni has four centres in Gauteng, all of which were involved in the event.
“There are so many similarities between mental health issues and substance abuse that we felt that we should address them together. Two of the Life Esidimeni centres represented here today focus on substance abuse, while the other two focus on mental health problems,” Johan said.
“Through events like these, we aim to empower the public by demonstrating our services, because they do not always know how to find help. The public and some of the patients were addressed by speakers from the Department of Social Development as well as the Department of Health and the Liquor Board of Gauteng,” he added.
The Randfontein Police were also present during the event.
According to Constable Carmen Hendricks, Randfontein Police spokesperson, their role was to address certain crime-related issues.
“We addressed mental illness, human trafficking, gender-based violence, domestic violence, drug trafficking, assaults, substance abuse, sexual assaults, and robberies,” she said.
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